Queen Eugenie, Signed 1889 Letter, Sir L. Simmons (03/29/2011)

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Queen Eugenie, Signed 1889 Letter, Sir L. Simmons

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Queen Eugenie, Signed 1889 Letter, Sir L. Simmons

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Sold Date: 03/29/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Fraternal, Political, Organizations

Queen Eugenie, Signed 1889 Letter to Sir L. Simmons, Governor of Malta

Queen Eugenie, Empress of France, Napoleon III's Wife,

Feb 18, 1885, 4 Page Letter, 5" X 7 7/8", black bordered, mourning edged.

Written in French, to Governor Sir L. Simmons of Malta.

Written right after having moved to Farnborough Hill,

Scan 1 is the page 1, scan 2 an enlargement of the Signature at the end of page 4,

Scan 3 - pages 2 and 3, and scan 4 last page, page 4,

María Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox-Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick, 16th Countess of Teba and 15th Marquise of Ardales ; 5 May 1826 – 11 July 1920), known as Eugénie de Montijo , was the last Empress consort of the French from 1853 to 1871 as the wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French .

When the Second French Empire was overthrown after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the empress and her husband took refuge in England , and settled at Chislehurst , Kent . After his death in 1873, and that of her son in 1879, she moved in 1885 to Farnborough , Hampshire , and to her villa "Cyrnos" (ancient Greek name of Corsica ), that she had built at Cape Martin between Menton and Nice , where she lived in retirement, abstaining from all interference in French politics. Her house in Farnborough is now an independent Roman Catholic girls' school, Farnborough Hill .

Eugénie de Montijo , as she became known in France , was educated in Paris , at the fashionable convent of the Sacré Cœur, where she received a Catholic education. When Prince Louis Napoléon became president of the Second Republic , she appeared with her mother at several balls given by the "prince-president" at the Elysée Palace; it was there that she met the future emperor, whom she wed on 30 January 1853, not long after he had been rebuffed in his attempts to marry first Princess Carola of Vasa (later Queen of Saxony ), a granddaughter of the deposed King of Sweden Gustav IV Adolph , and then Queen Victoria 's teenage niece, Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg .

In a speech from the throne on 22 January, Napoleon III formally announced his engagement, saying, "I have preferred a woman whom I love and respect to a woman unknown to me, with whom an alliance would have had advantages mixed with sacrifices." The so-called love match was looked upon with some sarcastic comment in the United Kingdom . The Times wrote, "We learn with some amusement that this romantic event in the annals of the French Empire has called forth the strongest opposition, and provoked the utmost irritation. The Imperial family, the Council of Ministers, and even the lower coteries of the palace or its purlieus, all affect to regard this marriage as an amazing humiliation..." A 26-year-old Spanish countess, of legitimate title and ancient lineage, the British newspaper implied with ill-concealed mirth, was not considered good enough for the House of Bonaparte (only two generations removed from obscurity in Corsica ).

On 16 March 1856, the empress gave birth to an only son, Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte , styled Prince Impérial .

When the empress wore the new cage crinolines in 1855, European fashion followed suit, and when she abandoned vast skirts at the end of the 1860s, at the encouragement of her legendary couturier, Charles Frederick Worth , the silhouette of women's dress followed her lead again. Eugénie's aristocratic elegance, splendour of dress and legendary jewels are well documented in innumerable paintings, especially by her favourite portraitist, Franz Winterhalter .

Spanish-French Empress, the wife of Napoleon III, married 1853. She was noted for her beauty, charm and great extravagance. After 1880, she was forced to live in exile.

She died in 1920.

Simmons was the fifth son of Captain Thomas Frederick Simmons, Royal Artillery of Langford in Somerset .[ 1] From the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich , he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1837 [2 ] ...